The Butterfly Effect-Signs and Portents
by Freline
Summary: Everyone on Babylon 5 is in danger after most of the alien Ambassadors fall under the control of an unknown race.
1. Midnight on the Firing Line

Since coming to Babylon 5, Timov always had the same dream once a week. She was standing in the throne room of the royal palace on Centauri Prime. Londo and G`Kar were lying in front of the throne, both dead after they had strangled each other. Next to her was a Narn woman she did not recognize and they were crying over the death of their husbands. Then the scene changed and they were both on Narn, looking up to a burning house about to fall on them. The first time Timov had that dream, she had known that it was going to be the way she died. After the house had fallen, she always woke up.

Years ago she would never have thought that she could love Londo like this one day. On the beginning of their marriage she had focussed all her hatred over being forced to marry a man she did barely know, on him. Now, after having gotten to know him better, she had realized that she had been unfair to him. He had been in the same situation after all and he had tried everything he could to make her comfortable.

Slowly she pushed back the covers, careful not to wake Londo and got out of bed. She walked to the kitchen and drank a glass of water. After her mouth did not feel so dry anymore she opened the door to the bedroom of the children. When she was sure that they were sleeping deeply, she sat in a chair and stared at the wall.

A few minutes later she heard Londo´s footsteps. He came to her and put his arm around her shoulder. They remained like this for a while, like they had done so many times before. After a few minutes she finally stood up, took Londo´s hand and led him back into the bedroom, while she already felt his brachiarti move. They did not sleep the rest of the night.

The next morning, Londo´s new assistant had arrived. At first Timov had thought that the young man, who seemed afraid of his own shadow, would not last one hour after meeting her husband.

A few days later Vir Cotto had completely surprised her. He seemed to have an instinctive way to know how he could deal with the people around him. She suspected he had learned this the hard way, so she made a call to Centauri Prime to ask about his family. What she heard made her almost want to go home and attack his uncle, the current head of his house. He had taken Vir in after his parents had died in an accident and apparently beat him half to death a few times when he was drunk.

The only thing stopping her was the attack on their colony Ragesh 3, where Londo´s nephew Carn was working as head researcher. They were careful not to talk about it in front of their children but in the evening, when they were in bed, Londo, Timov and Vir met in the living room of their quarters and listened for any news. When there was nothing, Londo repeated the first transmission from the afternoon. Hoping to find out who the attackers were, he zoomed on their ships. When he recognized them as Narn, he stormed out the door, yelling for G´Kar. Timov and Vir followed him quickly, trying to stop him from doing something he would only regret later. When they arrived in front of G´Kar´s quarters, they found Londo with a weapon he had gotten from somewhere, aiming at G´Kar. Mr. Garibaldi was standing between them, doing his best to take the weapon. During the struggle, a shot was fired. It only hit the wall, but it shocked everyone except Londo enough that he was able to fire a second shot, only barely missing G´Kar. Then Timov was finally near enough to take the weapon from Londo´s hand. She handed it to Mr. Garibaldi, who seemed grateful for her help. Then she led Londo away, keeping his arm gripped, so that he could not run back and try again.

Back in their quarters, she watched as he drank several glasses of brivari until he fell asleep in his chair. Together with Vir, Timov put Londo in their bed and calmed the children, who had never seen their father in this state before, Timov had made sure of that. She fed Jelina, then she took her and Darion to the Zocalo, where she bought her son all his favourite foods, to distract him from what he had just seen.

A while later Darion was getting tired, so she brought the children to Vir, who had offered to take them any time she and Londo needed some hours for themselves. Trying to distract herself from everything that happened today, she went to her favourite shop. After looking through a few dresses, she heard someone announce news from Ragesh 3. When she reached the nearest vid screen, she saw Carn´s face on the screen, telling everyone that the inhabitants of Ragesh 3 had asked for help from the Narn. Although this was obviously a forced statement, she even believed it for a few seconds.

When she got back, the bedroom was dark and empty. After she had searched half the station for Londo, she found him in the council chamber where he and the others present were listening to the same statement she had already heard. When it ended, Londo put his head on the table, hiding his face. Timov moved behind his chair and laid her hand on his arm, before she turned to G´Kar and glared at him. Soon the others left, leaving her and Londo alone in the room. He eventually calmed down and a few hours later, Commander Sinclair told them personally that he had arranged everything for Ragesh 3 to be free again.

This evening they all celebrated together, but Timov silently hoped that life an Babylon 5 was not always like this. If it was she would probably go mad some time in the future.


	2. Soul Hunter

Delenn sat at a table in the Zocalo. Her plate was long empty, but she did not notice it. She had spent the last thirty minutes watching Londo and his wife Timov interact with each other. They seemed to have completely forgotten that they were in a public area, even though they did not do anything beyond kissing frequently. While she watched them, she wished that Neroon was still here.

He had left yesterday after an urgent call from Minbar. He had not been able to tell her what exactly had happened or when he was going to be back, so she could do nothing else except waiting for him. Not that she really minded anymore. The feelings they had for each other were long gone, they were only staying together because neither of them wanted to be alone at night. But that was all that was left from ten years of love.

Just in this moment she heard someone behind her ask: "Is this table still free? Everywhere else is full." She turned to the speaker and nodded, glad to have someone she could possibly talk to. After he had sat down, she recognized him as Londo´s new assistant, Vir Cotto, who had arrived a few days previously. She had only seen him a few times and always in passing, so she was looking forward to talking to him.

He looked over at the couple a few tables away and sighed, before he said: "Do not understand me wrong, I am happy for them and I hope that I find a woman who can love me like this one day, but I really wish that I could talk to Londo alone at least once. They seem to be almost inseparable. And even when Timov is not with him, his son surely is."

Delenn smiled. She knew the feeling well. When her friend Mayan had first fallen in love, she had thought the same and she had soon developed a tactic to get her away from him, which worked every time. She looked at Vir and replied: "I have had the same problem with one of my friends and I have known them both for over a year now. Just tell Londo that there is a problem on Centauri Prime that requires his immediate attention. If there is one thing that is more important to him than Timov, it is your homeworld. He will not be mad at you when he finds out you have been tricking him, believe me, I know, I have done the same with him a hundred times before, when I wanted to talk to him alone. Nothing else has worked."

Vir thanked her for her help and walked over to the table. She saw him talk to Londo and a short time later they disappeared together, while Timov sat alone for a few minutes, before she walked away as well. Delenn stood up and made her way to her quarters.

She was almost there when she heard Commander Sinclair and Dr. Franklin talk about an unknown being in the MedLab. She offered them her help and they seemed glad about it, so she followed them to the isolation area.

When she looked through the glass, she instinctively grabbed a knife and tried to get inside. Dr. Franklin grabbed her arm, asking her what this was about, but she could not answer. She stared at the Soul Hunter in front of her, who only looked at her as if she had gone mad. After a while she had calmed down and told the Commander, who had just entered, that he had to kill the Soul Hunter, before it was too late and someone had died. She could see in his eyes that he did not believe her and she could not put it against him. He had never before heard about this race, so someone who could steal souls, probably seemed to fantastic for him. She only hoped that he did not doubt it for to long or it would be too late for all of them.

But she only realized the whole danger of the situation when the Soul Hunter came into her quarters and announced that he was going to kill her and then he would take her soul to his collection. He took her to an currently unused part of the station, where he strapped her to a table and started the process. The longer it went on, the more Delenn felt her life slipping away.

When she was sure that the end was near, she heard Commander Sinclair call her name. The Soul Hunter took a pistol and went outside, ready to fight. Delenn heard a few sounds she could not identify, then Commander Sinclair walked in, pushing the Soul Hunter into the room. He then turned his own device against him, killing him and freeing the souls he had taken. After she had been found, Delenn fell asleep. When she woke up, she was lying in a bed in the MedLab, with Commander Sinclair watching her. After she was released he handed her the soul spheres he had found in the Soul Hunter´s ship, telling her that she could do with them what she wanted. She took them gladly and freed all of them.


	3. Born to the Purple

Darion Mollari woke up in a dark room. The last he could remember was hiding from a man who had hurt his mother and then followed him as he ran away. Then there had been nothing. Had the bad man caught him? He put his head on his arms and started to cry. When he heard a door open, he looked up and saw the man from before. He knelt before Darion and said: "Oh, you are awake. That is good. Your father will be more willing to give me his purple files if he sees that you are alright." Then he pulled a camera from his clothes and took a picture of Darion, before he injected him with something that let him fall asleep again.

Londo was pleased as the minister who had called him finally ended the discussion. The man had been talking for an eternity. Just in the moment he had closed the bedroom door, getting ready to sleep for some hours, someone sounded the door chime. When he went to answer it, he found Timov outside, who had taken their son for a walk around the garden. As soon as she saw him, she fell into his arms and whispered: "I am sorry, Londo. There was a man, he took Darion. I could not stop him." Then she collapsed.

Londo carried her to the bed and laid her down on it, before he called Dr. Franklin. After his wife had been brought to the MedLab, where he knew she would be safe from whoever had taken their son, he went to inform Commander Sinclair about what just happened.

The Commander immediately ordered the security team to search for Darion and assured Londo that he would do all he could to find him. Then he asked Londo to go back to his quarters and wait. But as if he would not be able to do something like this now, he only went to collect Jelina and spend a few hours walking around the station with her. When he reached the door to his quarters, he saw the note on the outside. It said: "Ambassador Mollari, if you would like to get your son back alive, come to the DarkStar at Midnight. Bring your purple files on a data crystal."

Londo stared at the paper in his hand in horror. He could not believe what he had just read. He did not like it to be forced to give up the documents that could cost him and his family everything, but it seemed as if he had not have any other choice. He sat down on the bed for a while, holding Jelina in his arms and thinking about the problem. It took him a lot of time, but he finally had an idea. He brought his daughter to Vir and asked him to look after her for a few hours. Then he went to see

Mr. Garibaldi.

Together with the security chief he was able to put his plan into action. When it was half an hour before Midnight, Londo went to the DarkStar with a copy of the files that had a virus on it, which would scramble them after the kidnapper had put them into a computer. The time was almost past, when he noticed a few men entering, one was holding Darion on the hand. The man in front came to him and put his hands out for the crystal. Londo made a show of only handing them over reluctantly until the man lost his patience and motioned for one of the others to put a gun to Darion´s head. After seeing this, he could not give up the files fast enough.

The man holding Darion released his hand, allowing him to go to his father, who put his arms around him, never wanting to let go again. When the men were about to leave, they were stopped by Garibaldi and his team, who had listened the whole time with the help of a broadcast device attached to Londo´s coat.

After it was over and the kidnapper, whose name was Trakis, taken to the brig along with his men, Londo and Darion visited Timov, who had not received any injuries during the kidnapping. With the exception of a mild shock she was ok and would be released next morning.


	4. Infection

Dr. Stephen Franklin looked at the bed in front of him. Sometime during the night his current patient, the wife of the Centauri ambassador, had fallen into a coma from blood loss and he had no idea why. When he had last seen her, she had been alright, aside from shock. The scans had brought nothing and he feared that if she died, he would be next, killed by the ambassador. So his mood had not been the best, when he heard the voice of his old professor, Vance Hendricks, who wanted him to take part in something he called an adventure.

After he had agreed, Vance and his assistant brought some containers with artifacts that looked like organic technology. Then Vance asked Stephen to put one of them in his scanner and in this moment a monitor started to beep. When Stephen went into the room where his patient was he saw her tossing in her bed. He scanned her and found that her hearts were beating much faster than normal for Centauri.

He called one of his nurses to help him getting her heartbeats back to normal. They worked for hours, but they had no success. So they informed her husband, who came, sat at her side and held her hand. She woke up a few minutes later, it almost seemed as if she knew he was there. When that happened, the others in the room looked at the pair speechless. The rumors that had been going around the station since they came here, were obviously true. They were soulmates, made for each other. When Stephen looked at them again, he felt that they were meant for a special purpose regarding the future of Babylon 5. He did not know why he thought this, he just knew it to be true.

This night Stephen was working late and when he was about to leave and go to bed, he saw Vance´s assistant Nelson, who was suddenly looking more like the organic artifacts than like a human.

Before he could call security, Nelson had shouted: "I must protect them" and thrown himself at Stephen, who lost conciousness immediately.

When he woke up again, he saw Commander Sinclair and Chief Garibaldi standing next to the bed he was lying on. They looked worried about him and Stephen silenty asked himself how long he had been out. He was about to ask if they had seen Nelson, when Commander Sinclair´s link beeped. The voice of a technician told him that the firepower of Nelson´s weapon was getting stronger every time it was activated.

The Commander looked at Mr. Garibaldi and they left the room together. A while later Stephen was allowed to leave after being checked over a final time. He immediately went to Vance, ready to confront him about the artifacts, which obviously had never been in quarantine as they were supposed to be. To cover this, Nelson had killed the man in customs after Vance had asked him to do anything necessary to get them through without anyone asking questions.

Vance confessed everything without showing any sign of regret for his actions and at this moment Stephen realized that he probably had never known the man at all. He left the one he had always considered to be his friend alone in the room. He did not want anything to do with him anymore, as Vance had been ready to let someone else commit murder for his profit.

While he walked back to his quarters he heard Commander Sinclair ordering all civilians to clear the central corridor, which probably meant they were expecting the weapon that had taken over Nelson to appear there any second.

Stephen immediately turned around and went back to MedLab, where he got ready for possible patients. While he waited, he thought about what he had found out about the weapon. He could not imagine a possible reason for creating organic weapons and programming them to wipe out anything not "pure". It was only propaganda, nothing more and it had gone a lot to far.

It did not take long until they brought Nelson in after the weapon had released him. Commander Sinclair came with him and only looked slightly better. While he was checked over, the Commander told Stephen about the fight, during which he had been thrown against the bulkhead a few times.

He only was able to stop the weapon by telling him to look in Nelson´s memories and see for itself what it and the other weapons had done to the homeworld of their creators, the Ikarrans, which had been turned into a desert after the weapons had killed the last of the Ikarrans.

Shortly after that, two Earthforce officers confiscated the weapons, saying that they were to be studied on Earth and Stephen wondered if the governments would ever learn from the mistakes of the past. Something like that had been repeated every century during human history. However technologically advanced they might be, they kept making the same mistakes.


	5. The Parliament of Dreams

Londo looked at Timov, who had just fallen asleep again in their quarters after being released by Dr. Franklin. He had never seen her so pale and fragile before and he worried that she would never be completely her old self again. When she had woken up after the second night in MedLab and seen him, she got really frightened, as if he appeared to her as an image from a nightmare.

He sat in a chair on her side of the bed, holding her hand, while he thought about what he should tell Darion. He could not allow their son to see his mother like this. Maybe it would be a good idea to send the children back to Centauri Prime to spend some time with the family of his best friend, Urza Jaddo.

He called Vir to watch over Timov while he contacted his friend, who agreed to the visit. So Londo made an arrangement to go home with the children, leaving Timov with Vir, where he knew she would be safe. He would be back before the demonstration of the Centauri religion, which was scheduled in two weeks.

The flight was relatively uneventful and Darion got bored soon, so Londo had his hands full trying to keep his son away from restricted areas. He was glad when they finally arrived on Centauri Prime and were greeted by Urza and his wife Marilya at the docking area. They had been at Urza´s house for an hour when Londo received a call from the Prime Minister, telling him to come to the palace immediately, as the Emperor wanted to talk to him.

On the way there Londo could not help but wonder what the Emperor wanted from him. It had to be quite important if they did not even leave him time to rest after two days of travel. When he arrived, the Emperor already waited for him, along with his Prime Minister and some others Londo did not recognize.

Once he had entered the room, the doors were closed behind him. When the Emperor had told them that he wanted to make peace with the Narn, Londo almost laughed and from the expressions of the others they felt the same way. Then again, he had never seen the Emperor as a fool, so he listened to the plan.

After the Emperor had stopped talking, Londo looked around and saw that most of the others seemed to agree with him. He was not sure of it though, so he wanted to think about it until next morning and give his answer then. He knew that the success of the plan would only work with his help, since he was the only one with regular contact with the Narn, but he was not sure if he could agree to it. He had been taught that the Narn were barbarians since he was a child and that was hard to overcome.

When he had returned to Urza´s House, he immediately went to bed. This night he had a strange dream, where he saw the Emperor getting killed and one of his former advisers, Lord Refa, sitting on the throne. Then he saw himself and Vir on Babylon 5 with creatures on their shoulders that no one else could see. As he woke up and remembered the dream, he hoped that it would come true, but when he entered the throne room next morning, he saw exactly the scene that he had seen in it.

Three days after that he returned to Babylon 5. He had been forced to take one of the creatures, Refa and his partners called it a keeper. In his bag was another one of them, which he should give to Vir as they had instructed him. He had been assured that the consequences of disobedience would be pain beyond his imagination. Before he had left, the masters of the keepers, a race called the Drakh, had given him a demonstration of their power he could still feel until now. He hated having to do this to Vir, who had become his best friend in the last few months, but he had no choice. If he did not do it, the Drakh would kill his family and without them he would lose the strength to get through this and hopefully regain freedom for Vir and himself sometime in the future.

The Centauri religious festival, which Londo would normally enjoy, had meant nothing to him anymore. All he could think about was that the one who had been become his best friend in the short time they had known each other would soon lose his freedom and he would not be able to prevent it. But the worst thing was that he had no idea how he could keep this from Timov. She would soon notice that something was wrong with him and demand an explanation. He needed a way to force her to leave to keep her safe, but he had no idea how.

G`Kar had just put the plate on the table, ready to eat, as someone sounded the door chime. He called his visitor in, a Narn who introduced himself as the diplomatic courier Tu´Pari. He gave G´Kar a data crystal, telling him that it was important. He laid it on the table and sat down to eat. But it did not let him rest, so he put it into his computer and watched it. It was a message from Du´Rog, someone who he had once driven out of the Kha´Ri. He still remembered that as if it had been yesterday.

It had been the end of a long and boring session. Du´Rog, who had been a relatively new member had stood up and suggested to declare war with the Centauri Normally G´Kar would not have reacted to a stupid idea like this, but he had already had a very bad day. So he had stood up as well and said: "This is the worst idea I have ever heard. No one who is right in his mind would come up with such a plan to go against the Centauri. I wonder if all of your family are so stupid" Everyone in the room had agreed with G´Kar and Du´Rog had stormed out after swearing revenge. After this they had been rivals for years. Both of them tried to be better than the other and both of them hoped the other would leave the Kha´Ri first. In the end G´Kar had won after five years of fighting

Du´Rog in every session.

After the end of the message, where Du´Rog stated that he had hired an assasin that was already near, someone sounded the door chime again. This time it was a Narn woman who introduced herself as his new assistant Na´Toth. G´Kar looked at her for a while, trying to determine what to make of her. It was almost to much of a coincidence that she had appeared right after he had seen the message. Since his former assistant Ko D´Ath had died in an airlock he had thought that someone was after him. Now his worst suspicions were confirmed.

He asked Na´Toth if she had ever met Du´Rog. She denied it, but in this situation G´Kar could not afford it to trust anyone. So he sent her to find Tu´Pari and bring him here, while he was going to get someone who could protect him during the Minbari ceremony in a few hours. He needed to know who had asked Tu´Pari to deliver the data crystal.

During the ceremony G´Kar looked around, but the bodyguard he had hired from N´Grath, an alien who was known to sell everything, no matter how hard it was to get it, was nowhere to be seen.

After he returned to his quarters he told Na´Toth about this, who said he should go into his bedroom. There he found the bodyguard, who had been murdered.

It took a long time, but Na´Toth was able to find Tu´Pari, who was getting ready to leave Babylon 5. After she had brought him to G´Kar, she left them alone at his request. When she was gone, he asked Tu´Pari who had given him the crystal. He answered that it had been Councillor Shu´Toth, the father of Na´Toth and that the danger was closer than G´Kar thought.

He immediately made a call to Narn, asking for Na´Toth to be recalled and a replacement be sent.

The Narn who answered the call confirmed the request and apologized for the delay. She explained that the courier Ru´Dak had an accident on the day he was supposed to come to Babylon 5. G`Kar turned to Tu`Pari, ready to ask for an explanation. He could not even say a word before Tu`Pari had a weapon in his hand and fired at him.

He woke in an abandoned part of the station, with pain givers around his neck. Tu´Pari stood a few metres away and watched him. G´Kar got up from the floor and walked in Tu´Pari´s direction, but before he had reached him, Tu´Pari activated the device and G´Kar fell back to the floor.

Then he said: "I have received exact instructions. You will know fear, you will know pain and you will die to a specific hour.".With that he activated the device again, this time much longer, until

G´Kar thought he was going to be ripped apart.

Just as he thought that he could not endure this much longer, Na´Toth appeared. She told Tu´Pari that she had been chosen as his second, should he fail. Then she proceeded to attack G´Kar herself, trying to convince Tu´Pari to trust her. He did not believe her, but her attack had been enough to disable the pain givers, allowing G`Kar to knock Tu`Pari out. Immediately afterwards they brought him to the docking bay and arranged for a transport off the station. When Tu´Pari finally woke up again, G´Kar told him that he had transferred money to his personal account, making it seem that he had broken the contract. Then they wished him luck and walked away.


	6. Mind War

At first, Jeffrey Sinclair had thought that it was going to be another meeting that ended with an argument between Londo and G´Kar about everything that had been discussed today. He was surprised to see that Ambassador Mollari was really quiet today, which was unusual for him. He did not respond to anything that was said to him. After the meeting he followed Londo to his quarters, to ask him if something was wrong and if he could help in any way, but as he got there the door was closed. He pressed the chime a few times, but no one reacted. Sinclair was about to leave, when he heard Londo scream. He overrode the lock and entered. What he saw inside shocked him.

Londo was lying on the floor, his assistant Vir Cotto next to him and both were unconscious. Sinclair bent down and listened to their hearts, which were still beating normally. He activated his link, ready to call Dr. Franklin and request a med team, but before he could do that, he was knocked to the floor and everything went dark.

When he woke up again, he found himself in a broken transport tunnel, with Ivanova standing next to him. She was out of breath as if she had run through the entire station. She took his hand and pulled him up, looking concerned. He was glad that she did not ask him what had happened as they walked back to the command deck. Instead she told him about everything that had happened while he was out. Apparently someone from Psi Corps had come aboard an hour ago, looking for a rogue telepath called Jason Ironheart, who had killed a doctor and then escaped. Now he was here and the Psi Cops wanted to get him and bring him back to Earth.

At first Sinclair thought it should not be a problem, but after Ms. Winters, the former lover of Ironheart, came to him and claimed that she had talked to him and that he had not a lot of time but wanted to see Sinclair immediately, he realized that it would be more complicated than he thought.

He accompanied Ms. Winters to see Ironheart, who warned him that Bester, the Psi Cop was after him to try and repeat some experiments that made a telepath stronger than anyone should be.

According to him the humans were not ready for that kind of power.

A few minutes later they left the area where Ironheart had hid and went to the docking bay to get him off the station before he lost control and possibly destroyed Babylon 5. Halfway there they were stopped by Bester and his colleague Ms. Kelsey, who tried to arrest Ironheart, but failed. Ms. Kelsey was killed and Bester was knocked out.

Sinclair knew that he would not stay like that for long, so he brought Ironheart to a ship and then went to the observation dome, watching Ironheart´s ship waiting for something just in front of the jumpgate. After a while they saw a bright flash, then the ship was gone and Ironheart had changed into a being of light. His final words were: "Goodbye Talia. I am giving you a gift, so that you always know how much you meant to me". Then he was gone and Ms. Winters walked away, tears in her eyes, leaving Sinclair alone. Now that the crisis was over he remembered what had happenen in Londo´s quarters, which brought him to wonder about who could have attacked him, since Londo and Vir had both been unconscious and there had been no one else in the room.

He knew it would not be easy, but he was going to do everything he could to find out and he would start by watching Londo and Vir as often as possible. After coming back from Centauri Prime Londo´s behaviour had changed. First it had been barely noticeable, but now it was clear to everyone. Since then he spent almost the entire time outside of a conference in his room and had even forced his wife to rent another room after they had an argument that could be heard two corridors away. The couple that had been nearly inseparable a month ago was now rarely seen together.


End file.
